GREAT BOOK OF FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM

DIANE KELDER
Book Number: 83151
Product format: Hardback

A sumptuous showcase of the very best of this controversial art movement. French Impressionism finally emerged as a powerful and immensely popular artistic movement whose appeal remains undiminished today. Monet's Women In the Garden faces his Bazille and Camille, both using dappled sunlight and beautiful floral scenes; Mary Cassatt's Boating Party and Lady at the Tea Table are from her repeatedly painted images of women, often with their children. Degas' Cotton Merchants of 1873 has fine texture and perspective and you feel inside the room. Berthe Morisot's The Harbour at Lorient captures the calmness of the waterscape as a parasoled lady sits on a wall. Earlier influences of Turner and Constable are also showcased in these huge glossy pages, and towards the end of the showcase are Van Gogh's Sidewalk Café at Night, Chair and Pipe and Self Portrait. The return of the revised edition of the most popular volume on French Impressionism offers inspired, authoritative text and hundreds of exquisite colour illustrations. The artists featured here include Renoir, Monet, Morisot, Degas, Cassatt, Seurat, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. Putting the movement in context, here too are representative paintings by such influential forebears of the Impressionists as Manet and Turner, and latecomers to the scene who further advanced their techniques, namely Cézanne, Van Gogh, Caillebotte and Gauguin. The book celebrates the richness and exuberance of the Impressionists' world - a world of light and colour, of sunlit fields and shimmering waterscapes, of bustling city views and intimate domestic scenes. The 400 illustrations in this handsomely designed volume faithfully capture the subtle nuances of light and keen perception that make French Impressionist paintings unique. This edition features recent scholarship, more complete backmatter, and an expanded index. In her thoughtful and cogent text, art historian Diane Kelder traces the development of Impressionism from its roots in landscape and realist painting through its focus on modern urban life to fix on canvas the fleeting moods and effects of nature in an ever-changing world. Includes fascinating anecdotes and excerpts from contemporary essays and letters. 400pp, super heavyweight, luxury large book. Abbeville Press, 229 colour images. 28.7 x 4.1 x 33.8 cm.
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